Exploring and comparing designs: the same game?

Abstract: Design space explorers are computer programs that play on an exploration
metaphor to support design. They assist designers in creating alternative
designs by structuring the process of design creation in a space of
alternatives. Subsidiary metaphors relevant to design space explorers are
generation, navigation and re-use. The SEED project has developed a
knowledge-level representation for a design space explorer. This paper
sketches typed feature structures as a formal system in which a design space
explorer and its knowledge level might be implemented. First, informal and
abstract properties of typed feature structures suffice to build a sketch of the
behaviour of a design space explorer. Second, using an example based on
single-fronted cottages (a common Australian housing type), we outline the
typed feature structure machinery most relevant to design space exploration.
Finally we argue that the same mechanisms that enable design space
exploration are applicable to evaluation.

Permission to reproduce these papers has been graciously provided by the Research Press of the National Research Council of Canada. The support of the editors, particularly Dr. Dana Vanier, is gratefully appreciated.